Home-Cured Bacon. Photos by Donna Turner Ruhlman (click pic to go to see her posts) I demoed home-cured bacon at the Blogher 2010 after party Saturday night, with the help of the excellent students of the California Culinary Academy (thanks for the perfect set-up, chef-students!). I couldn’t do it start to finish, of course. You need to give the belly a dry rub for a week. Then you need to cook it for an hour or so. People drinking bacon martinis on a Saturday night don’t want to stand around watching pork belly cure. I showed the steps though, cooked some up (the folks at CCA had cured it perfectly). But the next day, as I waited for the airport shuttle, a woman told me she wanted to cure bacon, even had a smoker (nice but not essential). “Well, didn’t you see my demo, didn’t you see how easy it was, didn’t it put you at ease?” “I had to go to the bathroom,” she explained. Home-Cured Bacon (adapted from Charcuterie) —Mix the following together in a small bowl: 4 tablespoons coarsely ground black pepper.
How to Make Pancetta. Sean Timberlake founded Punk Domestics in 2010 with the goal of curating and evangelizing the DIY food movement. He has penned the blog Hedonia since 2006. He is also leading a week-long culinary trip to Italy in January 2013, and there are still spots available. He lives in San Francisco with his husband, dpaul brown, and their hyperactive terrier, Reese. You can also find him on Twitter (@PunkDomestics, @Hedonia) and Facebook.
I make no secret of my love for cured meats. In fact, after well over a decade of vegetarianism, the lance that cracked my armor was a single piece of salame. My husband and I were on our first trip to Italy. Today, I don’t just eat meat; I consider it a contact sport. With last year’s Charcutepalooza challenge, which I supported on Punk Domestics, I became aware for the first time that making various forms of cured meat is actually feasible in the home. Now, I know not everyone is going to up and make their own salame. Mix the salt and spices well. DIY Pancetta is a Nice Addition to Your Bacon Addiction. The Best Way to Grill Sausages: Poach Them Right on the Grill. I prefer to cook mine dry. Not too close to the coals/burners, or as the article mentions, you risk the skin bursting. I also don't want them close enough to the heat that the grease dripping from them is going to cause flame ups that will engulf them.
I cook them for a long time, and make sure I keep rotating them so that they are done all the way around to the same consistency. If I am cooking for a large number of guests, I might have a beer bath going on the grill at the same to let them rest in when they are done and I am still manning the grill. That beer bath usually consists of cheap beer (think Miller High Life) and a premixed spice like Tony Chachere's ([www.tonychachere.com]). The sausage skin should be firm when fully done and have a kind of snap to it when you bite into it and the juicy goodness fills your mouth and runs down your chin.
In recent surveys, 3 out of 4 porn stars approve of that last sentence. Instant Infusions. Pizza cones. The Best Offset Smoker and Barrel Smoker Setup and Modifications and gas conversion of offset smokers. "You gotta learn your pit just like a man learns his woman. Or you can't get nothing good outta her. " Anonymous By Meathead Goldwyn I know you want to buy an offset. It looks so macho. It says "I'm serious about barbecue". Let's divide the world of offsets into two categories: EOS and COS. COS have serious shortcomings that can mar meals and marriages. COS also have poor fire management control because the fireboxes leak so badly so you cannot control oxygen and that is what controls temperature and smoke quality.
COS are designed and build poorly. EOS are made from thick metal that absorbs and distributes heat more evenly end to end, their doors and dampers are tight so you can really control temp. Please resist the temptation to buy a COS. Click here for an article with our impressions of many of the different offset smokers on the market, in all price ranges. How to tame your offset If you have an offset, here are some important techniques and modifications to make, cheap or otherwise:
Bacon! Never once, in all my years of eating bacon , had I considered even once that it could be improved upon. Nothing on the planet is better than bacon! Butter and chipotle come close, or maybe a flourless chocolate cake with fresh raspberries. Perfectly cooked kobe beef and a garlicky escargot with lots of bread to soak it all up is right up there, too. But of all these delicious dishes, bacon is the only one that I can eat right after rolling out of my toasty warm bed first thing in the morning, and the only thing that I can enjoy just as it is, in it’s perfectly delicious fatty state.
Baking bacon, frying bacon, Kevin Bacon, wrapping something with bacon and then baking bacon…it really doesn’t matter. It’s bacon . Until now, I’ve never given much thought to bacon other than I prefer it thickly-sliced and crispy. Here’s a fun list from Bacon Magazine : 3 million pounds of Bacon would be worth 3 million dollars if Bacon was worth a dollar a pound. What about this article on Bacon Vodka? DIY Nutella. Boil Hazelnuts in Water with Baking Soda to Easily Remove Skins.
Smash Your Burgers (The Correct Way) Black Pepper-Garlic Chicken. Here's one on my favorite Stir-fry recipes, inspired by Black Pepper Chicken served at Panda Express Restaurants. The savory sauce took a bit of tinkering, but I think this copycat version is really close... and it's delicious, too! Please... don't forget to start this recipe with Velveted Chicken. It's a very simple technique that'll turn any Chicken Stir-fry into a mouth-watering Asian masterpiece!
Ingredients: 1 lb. Stir all of the sauce ingredients together in a small bowl, allowing about 10-15 minutes for the flavors to mingle/mature while you slice the vegetables. Stir-fry: Heat 2 Tablespoons oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat until almost smoking. Add the sliced red/yellow onions to the skillet, stirring constantly for about one minute. Add the sliced celery, green onions and chopped garlic to the skillet. Add the stir-fry sauce. Add the velveted chicken, reduce the heat to medium and stir to coat. Serve over prepared Basmati or Jasmine Rice. Enjoy! How to Velvet Chicken. The word "velvet" is a verb... sometimes. ;-) It's the almost-secret poaching technique that's used to produce tender, succulent chicken, beef and pork at your favorite Chinese Restaurant.
If you've been frustrated by less-than-stellar stir-fry results at home, simple velveting will take your stir-fry from mundane to extraordinary. Your family will swear it's take-out. ;-) Here's how it's done with chicken: Ingredients: 1 lb boneless, skinless Chicken meat, cut into thin strips 2 teaspoons Rice Wine (Saki) or Seasoned Rice Vinegar 1 large egg white 1 Tablespoon cornstarch 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 Tablespoons Canola or Peanut Oil- divided WaterTools: Medium bowl Whisk Colander large skillet Slotted spoon Preparation: Whisk the egg white, cornstarch, rice wine, salt and 1 Tablespoon of oil in a medium bowl until smooth.
Add the sliced chicken and stir until coated. Refrigerate (marinate) 30 minutes. Add 1-2 inches of water plus 1 Tablespoon oil to the skillet. 3 Ways to Test Oil for Frying.